"Chapter 04: Epidemiology in the Eighties" by Margaret R. Spitz MD and Tacey A. Rosolowksi PhD
 
Chapter 04: Epidemiology in the Eighties

Chapter 04: Epidemiology in the Eighties

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Description

In this chapter, Dr. Spitz talks about the state of the field of epidemiology in the Eighties. She notes that it was generally regarded as a “second-class science.” She quotes a colleague who made dismissive comments about the field. This situation began to change when the NCI required SPORE programs to have a population science component. At that point, Dr. Spitz explains, epidemiologists became very much in demand at MD Anderson. MD Anderson’s growing focus on prevention under Charles LeMaistre also created demand, as “epidemiology was the basic science of cancer prevention.”

Identifier

SpitzM_01_20161013_C04

Publication Date

10-13-2016

Publisher

The Historical Resources Center, Research Medical Library, The University of Texas Cancer Center

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Overview; Overview; Definitions, Explanations, Translations; Understanding Cancer, the History of Science, Cancer Research; The History of Health Care, Patient Care; Politics and Cancer/Science/Care

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Disciplines

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History

Transcript

T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Now tell me a little bit about the state of the field at the time. You know, what—

Margaret Spitz, MD:

Well, interesting. Epidemiology, to be quite truthful, was regarded as a second-class science. And the chairman of medicine once said that epidemiologic research, and mine in particular, was phenomenologic. I actually hadn’t heard the word, and I briefly wondered whether he meant phenomenal. But I had caught the disparaging tone in the voice, so I realized it wasn’t a good compliment.

T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:

I wonder if it means “subjective” in this case?

Margaret Spitz, MD:

Well, I think he meant—I understood afterwards what he meant, that we did little bits of work here, there, and never joined it together, and never went in depth and pursued each topic. So I spent the rest of my career trying to show him that epidemiologic research was not phenomenologic. And then what happened was, the NCI started the SPORE program. And initially, each SPORE program had to have a population science project. And most of these, our colleagues were very interested in epidemiologic projects. So all of a sudden, we were in such great demand to provide epidemiologic projects for each of these new SPOREs that were going out. And at one stage, we had projects in six or seven SPOREs, and that really made our name and solidified the success of the epidemiology department. Of course, I’ve neglected to say how hard we worked at recruiting good faculty. And we can go into that, and I think we should.

T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yes, absolutely. But first, I did want to ask you a little bit more about just creating this presence of epidemiology at MD Anderson. Was that controversial? Was it difficult?

Margaret Spitz, MD:

Well, it was disinterest. People were not probably really interested in epidemiology. But gradually, I think they saw that we were doing good studies. And certainly, when the discipline of molecular epidemiology emerged, and we actually were one of the first epidemiology programs to have our own lab, and that’s an interesting story in its own right, which I will tell you the whole story.

T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Now one other question, just to sort of context in background. Was the inclusion of epidemiology in this original vision of cancer prevention and control, was that, at the time, an understanding how prevention should operate? Was epidemiology considered an absolutely critical facet?

Margaret Spitz, MD:

In fact, some people said it was the basic science of cancer prevention.

T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Oh wow, okay. Okay.

Margaret Spitz, MD:

And Dr. LeMaistre, of course, knew all this. And you know that Dr. LeMaistre was part of the 1964 Surgeon General’s report on smoking.

T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Yes.

Margaret Spitz, MD:

And lung cancer. I mean, he was right up there. He recognized the importance of prevention.

T. A. Rosolowski, PhD:

Okay. Terrific. No, that’s really, really helpful. Yeah, it’s amazing as I interview people how so many individuals who came to the institution in the ’60s and ’70s were really very busy establishing new fields.

Margaret Spitz, MD:

Yes. Absolutely.  

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Chapter 04: Epidemiology in the Eighties

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